DR Congo to publish land deals in bid to gain public trust
▻http://news.trust.org/item/20161005040240-0830w
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) plans to make all of its large-scale agricultural contracts public, in an effort to increase transparency over land deals and improve management of natural resources, officials and researchers said on Wednesday.
DRC will provide summaries of the deals including social, environmental and fiscal provisions, as well as tools for comparing contracts in an online #database, which will be linked to global land database OpenLandContracts.org.
Africa’s second largest country by geographical area is rich in land, minerals and other natural resources but conflict and corruption have kept many of its 81 million people in poverty, analysts say.
Investment in the country’s fertile farmland could help boost development but large-scale land deals must take into account the land rights of local populations and subsistence farmers, campaigners say.
#RDC #terres #concessions